“Now, many worthy and intelligent people have stood on this stage and spoken to you these past few days. We have heard impassioned speeches advocating various positions and strategies. Some have urged us to remain neutral, indeed to avoid arming ourselves whatsoever lest we draw upon ourselves the ire of the Sahiradin Queen. Others recommend a course of armed neutrality, the so-called “Fortress Earth” policy that would seek relations with both the Sahiradin and the Lycians but resist all attempts to draw us into the fight. I understand the impulses behind both positions. Our ship has reached strange shores and we are unsure of what lies beyond the tree line. But I must tell you, both positions are mere dreams, illusions conjured up by wishful minds that have not yet fully encompassed the true state of affairs.”
“Fortunately, what our minds cannot comprehend, our hearts already perceive. We all know in our hearts that the Sahiradin will not honor Earth’s neutrality. They cannot honor it for they believe we are the forgotten offspring of an enemy that is now extinct, wiped from existence by their own hand. And as they have done unto the Alamani, they have sworn to do unto us. To those of you who would seek relations with the Sahiradin, I say you have lost your wits! One cannot expect clemency from the scorpion or pity from the viper. Their nature is to strike, quickly and lethally. The same is true of the Sahiradin!”
A few nervous or disparaging whispers followed this last statement, though most faces remained solemnly attentive to the man on the stage.
“And so I stand here before this august body, the chosen representatives of the many peoples of Earth, people whose thoughts, dreams, songs, and stories are as beautiful and numerous as the stars. These people look to us for leadership for they have endured much hardship since the Impact, that cowardly assault on our world which rained fire down from the skies to destroy our cities, burn our lands, and render a bountiful Earth nearly barren. How shall we respond to that attack and those that followed? Some say do nothing and hope for the best. Others say arm ourselves but do nothing. A few have already made their decision; the League of Free Cities, Poland, and the Republic of Ghana and Ashanti have committed troops and pilots. Other nations have participated in small, but significant joint operations with the Lycians against Sahiradin installations.”
“I say all of Earth should respond in accord with these bold examples. The Sahiradin are blowing the horns of war and we must respond in kind! We must fight them wherever we find them! Let us pledge ourselves – our mind, body, and spirit - to complete victory. It is time to put on our armor and pick up our shields. We must apply all our strengths and resources to defeating these forces of Tyranny! We must hammer plowshares into swords, pull precious ores from the depths of the Earth, and crack the hearts of the heavenly bodies to plunder their wealth! No price is too high to maintain our lives and our freedom!”
Now Ravenwood shook with power. His hands and head acquired a subtle luminescence while the lights of the great chamber dimmed slightly.
“The time for talking is over,” he said in a deep voice that reverberated in the bones of those assembled. “The Tree of Liberty faces its greatest threat since it first opened its sapling leaves to our sun’s warming rays. Hear me now! The Sahiradin are coming with their axes. We must defend the Tree. We must ensure that it continues to stand strong so it may cast its seeds into the solar winds so they may alight upon distant worlds and take root. Only when Peace, Justice, and Equality thrive throughout the galaxy will we have truly defeated the forces of Tyranny. Only then can we set aside the blade and the gun and live in peace.”
Chapter 2
Neither numbers nor strength give the victory, but that side which attacks with the greatest resolution.
- Xenophon. The Persian Expedition.
Cap pulled back on the stick of his Falcon 5, a Lycian-made interceptor converted for human use. He skimmed along the surface of a rolling asteroid, one of millions orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Cap’s fighter was one of three hundred provided to the Earth Defense Force, which despite its grand name consisted of about five hundred soldiers and enough pilots to fly the Falcons and seventy-five Bulldog torpedo fighters. The only other EDF assets worth mentioning consisted of six aged long distance freighters which the Lycians had converted into space stations. These stations were strategically located throughout the inner regions of the Terran solar system. Supporting the EDF were a few dozen Lycian trainers, interpreters, and support staff, none of whom had the authority to play an active role in the defense of Earth.
Technically speaking, Cap was still a pilot in the League of Free Cities, but he submitted his name as soon as the call went out for volunteers. That he was not already behind bars for stealing the Drake was due largely to the efforts of Ravenwood, General Longmire, and Logan, all of whom had interceded on his behalf. They declared that the need for acquiring the Drake in the manner Cap had done was necessary and that he was acting under sealed orders from Longmire himself. Unfortunately, attorneys from the League’s Office of the Inspector General were loath to ignore the violation and could find no record of Longmire’s orders having been issued. By way of compromise, the attorneys agreed to suspend the investigation so long as Cap maintained a clean record while serving in the EDF.
A proximity sensor blared its warning as Cap’s Falcon came within just a meter of a giant rock’s rugged surface, but he ignored it, focusing instead on the Heads Up Display visible inside his helmet visor. The HUD received data not only from the Falcon’s sensors but also from the three small targeting pods he had launched a few moments earlier. The pods raced ahead of him, spreading out in order to relay data to the Falcon and give its pilot a better view of what lay ahead.
A sensor trilled loudly. His HUD had registered two missiles racing to the exact point where he was about to appear above a small promontory on the asteroid’s edge. He lurched to starboard just as the missiles flashed by. They quickly altered course in order to reacquire their intended target. The Falcon’s defensive systems automatically launched two small beacons toward the missiles in an effort to draw them off. Only one took the bait; the other would be on Cap’s tail in just seconds.
The enemy craft, a nimble Sahiradin scout ship, momentarily appeared in front of Cap before dipping behind another asteroid. Though it was out of view, the Falcon’s forward-deployed targeting pods continued to track and transmit data about the enemy’s movements. Cap glanced at the upper left corner of his HUD. The lighter Sahiradin scout ship was getting away and would soon be out of effective range.
The trilling alarm returned to remind him of the Sahiradin missile rapidly approaching from behind. The Falcon’s defensive systems were urging him to bank sharply to the right or dive in order to avoid destruction, but he ignored them. He pressed a few icons on a screen to his left, causing a red light to flash in his HUD, warning him of imminent loss of navigation functionality as the Falcon’s holographic controls flickered to life. Cap disregarded the warning lights and removed his right hand from the stick, which Lycian engineers had installed in all Falcons and Bulldogs by request of the human pilots who complained about the complexities of the original holographic controls.
“Raider 5, Raider 5, we see your navigation system is failing,” said a calm Brevian voice in Cap’s helmet speaker. “Please advise as to your status.”
Cap slipped both hands inside the holographic control wells as soon as they appeared.
“What the hell’s going on out there, Raider 5?” barked a different voice, this time with a Northern European accent. “Now’s not the time to play games, Caparelli. You’re going to lose that scout ship!”
“I’ve got everything under control, Colonel Berzinš,” replied Cap. “And that ship’s not getting away. Not this time.”
He tried to adjust the Falcon’s direction but the fighter was unresponsive. The systems were still undergoing the process of switching to the holographic controls. He glanced at his HUD to check on the progress of that missile on his tail. Maybe this hadn’t
been such a great idea.
“You’ve got a bluebird screaming up your tailpipe, Raider 5!” said Berzinš. “Get back on the stick or eject, now!”
Cap tried to alter course, but again the Falcon refused to obey his command. He glanced at his HUD to check the missile’s proximity and watched with rising anxiety as the blur of digits counted down to zero. He tried to bank left. Nothing. The missile would slam into the fighter’s starboard stabilizer in five seconds… four… three… two… one.
The Falcon’s fuselage suddenly spun ninety-degrees, though the cockpit remained in position. A white light flashed by just one meter to Cap’s left where the stabilizer had been a moment earlier. He targeted the passing missile with his high energy particle array and blasted its propulsion system, causing it to fly wildly off course and strike a nearby asteroid.
Cap returned his attention to the Sahiradin scout ship and pushed the Falcon to its maximum velocity, higher than Lycians deemed Humani capable of managing even with the assistance of the fighter’s inertia dampening systems. He glanced once more at the telemetry data and grinned with satisfaction as the distance to the scout ship began to drop.
The Sahiradin pilot must have noticed the Falcon’s increased velocity because it accelerated and fired two more missiles just before slipping into a cluster of tumbling asteroids. The approaching missiles blinked a bright red in Cap’s HUD, but he did not deviate one centimeter from his course. Instead of seeking to evade them, he targeted them and fired. Bright blue flashes of light stitched across the dark canvas of interstellar space in front of the Falcon as Cap sought to destroy the rapidly approaching missiles.
“Yeah!” he shouted as the particle beams connected with the onrushing missiles, shattering them into a thousand pieces.
“You’re lucky as hell, Raider 5,” said Berzinš. “Time to get out of there. We’ve got five Falcons on the way to encircle the scout ship. You’re low on fuel. Return to base.”
Cap scowled at the thought of giving up the chase. For three months they’d been after this damned scout ship and the Sahiradin stealth frigate, Black Dagger, it called home. They had arrived in the Terran System shortly after the Lycians and a small force of Humani, including Cap, destroyed the Sahiradin outpost on Mars. Soon thereafter, the battleship Havoc appeared near Venus, no doubt using the Apollo Stone to do so because the Sahiradin had no khâl in the Terran System. The Lycians rapidly responded to Havoc’s appearance by sending one of their super battleships and a complement of supporting vessels through their gate near Earth. But Havoc was not interested in hanging around for a fight. Instead, she used the Apollo Stone to quickly deploy three Sahiradin khâls at various points in the solar system. Two of them were quickly found and destroyed before they could fully deploy and establish links to other gates in the Sahiradin network. But the third gate, which Havoc deployed beyond Saturn, had survived long enough to permit a light frigate, Black Dagger, to enter.
Equipped with advanced stealth technology, the frigate soon slipped through the Lycian screen and went undetected for over a month. During that period Lycian patrol ships, some crewed by a mix of Humani and Rahani, discovered and destroyed several dozen Sahiradin intelligence gathering devices which had been placed all around the solar system. Based on the locations and pace of their activation, the Lycians concluded they must have been deployed by a number of small scout craft because the distances between them were too great to have been traversed by Black Dagger alone, even using her stealth technology. The theory was that the Sahiradin frigate was likely stationary and powered down while her complement of at most five single-pilot scout craft quietly crept through the system, gathering intelligence and deploying the Sahiradin devices. The theory was confirmed when four scout ships were detected and destroyed over a period of three weeks, but this final one had proven to be extremely difficult to catch. The newly trained Humani Falcon pilots of the fledgling Earth Defense Force had cornered the scout ship twice, yet both times it had somehow slipped through their fingers.
“Are you listening, Raider 5?” barked Berzinš. “Return to base. Acknowledge.”
“I’ll be back when the job’s done,” replied Cap.
Two more missiles suddenly appeared on Cap’s HUD. They were coming from directly in front of him. He fired his particle beam, destroying one of the Sahiradin projectiles, but the other swooped away at the last moment then continued straight toward Cap. The Falcon automatically prepared to fire its two missiles at them, but Cap countermanded the system and braced himself for a collision.
Moments later the Sahiradin missile slammed into the Falcon’s nose. The shock from the explosion rendered Cap nearly unconscious. When he was able to focus his eyes a few seconds later he saw that the entire cockpit was alive with blinking lights warning him of a host of disabled or damaged systems, but he was only interested in two of them. Using his eyes to flick through several options in his HUD, he saw with satisfaction that both navigation and weapons remained online. Thankfully, the Falcon’s antiballistic shields had protected the hull from breach, but the force of the collision had caused the fighter serious damage, including to its environmental systems. Cap switched to his emergency oxygen supply and attached a mask to the lower part of his helmet so as to cover his nose and mouth.
“You still there, Raider 5?” asked Berzinš. “Raider 5, respond!”
“I’m here,” mumbled Cap, still a little disoriented.
“Stay put. Help is almost there.”
Cap didn’t respond. The scout ship had spent its final missiles. Now it’s only defenses were a rather weak particle gun and speed. Cap checked his targeting system and saw that his prey no longer registered anywhere on his HUD. If it were still on the move, the pods would have picked it up, so the pilot must have tucked in next to an asteroid and powered down. Under most conditions, that would have been a safe play, but with five more Falcons closing in fast, it wouldn’t be long before it was flushed out and the chase would begin anew. Normally, Cap would have been satisfied with that scenario; he would have waited for the Falcons to arrive then returned to Delta Station for repairs and a little oxygen. But this was different. The human pilots in those Falcons were using stick controls, which had proven again and again to underperform against this Sahiradin pilot. The enemy would once again slip through their fingers.
Cap pinned the last known location of the scout ship in his navigation system and ripped toward it, one eye on his HUD, the other on the oxygen level indicator. He should have enough air to finish the job. Probably. Maybe.
When he reached the dark side of a nearby asteroid, he reduced the Falcon’s velocity to a slow drift. Assuming the enemy had powered down to the barest essential systems, Cap would only be able to detect his prey if he actively pinged for it - not something he liked to do because it would announce his own location like a blaring foghorn. He’d try something else first. He activated the fighter’s flare system. The flares would emit enough light to illuminate the side of the asteroid where Cap suspected the Sahiradin was hiding. Glancing at his HUD, he saw five Falcons approaching from the inner system. They would be there within a few minutes, but he had to assume the Sahiradin pilot was also aware of the approaching fighters. Somebody would have to make a move, soon.
Cap fired a flare toward the spot where he believed the scout to be hiding. The shining ball of light drifted by the asteroid and illuminated its darkened surface, but there was no ship. Cap gently nudged the Falcon to another position and fired a second flare. Nothing. Perhaps the cagey Sahiradin had powered down and was drifting away from the asteroid. Cap looked once again at the last data points he’d received about the enemy’s speed and direction. He pointed his Falcon’s nose toward the deep darkness of interstellar space and fired a third flare. He watched intently as it advanced straight forward for a thousand meters.
Still no sign of the enemy scout.
With a sinking heart, Cap watched the little white light of the flare grow ever fainter as it receded in
to the distance. With only one flare left, he was about to try another direction when something surprising caught his eye. The flare he’d just fired abruptly changed direction, shooting downward at a ninety degree angle.
Cap moved his fighter forward to investigate the flare’s unusual behavior then a thought suddenly struck him.
“This is definitely not groovy,” he whispered.
He quickly toggled away from his flares until he came to the symbol for active pinging. Time to see what the hell was out there. Using a form of advanced LADAR, he pinged everything in a one hundred eighty degree radius. What he saw turned his guts into a knot. It was the outline of a Sahiradin ship but it was no single-pilot scout. It was bigger - much, much bigger.
“Son of a…!”
He quickly reversed the Falcon’s engines and spun her nose around to face the opposite direction. He plunged his hands deep into the control wells and raced away at top speed, his eyes nervously searching the Falcon’s various systems for signs of danger.
Behind the retreating fighter, a single red light began to glow. Another appeared, then another. It was Black Dagger waking from its deep slumber like a dragon, ready to consume whatever had been foolish enough to wake it. The Sahiradin frigate’s particle beam nodes began to glow and four missile batteries spun around to point in the direction of the Falcon.
“Delta Station! Delta Station! I found it!” shouted Cap excitedly. “I found Black Dagger! It’s here! It’s here!”
Chapter 3
If ever you find yourself on a tiger’s back, don’t get off until the ride’s done or you’ll end up as its lunch.
- Interview with General Joshua Chamberlain Longmire.
“Delta Station! Delta Station! This is Raider 5!” repeated Cap, his voice a mixture of excitement and fear. “I found it! I found the frigate!”
The Renegade Page 2
